Telegram Plans to Raise $500 Million Through Pre-ICO

Telegram Messenger plans to hold the largest ICO in history to raise funds to launch its own blockchain platform and cryptocurrency.

According to several sources of TechCrunch, Telegram expects to raise $500 million through closed private sales in the preliminary stage of the ICO.

Telegram Open Network (TON) tokens would be used for internal user payments.

Sources say that series of private pre-sales alone would raise $500 million and the public sales of tokens would help this amount to grow to between $3 to $5 billion. This would make Telegram ICO the largest ICO in history, outmatching Block.One ICO, which raised $700 million and currently holds the record of largest ICO ever.

TechCrunch reports that investors outside "the inner circle" of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who would like to participate in the pre-ICO may face some restrictions: a buy-in of minimum $20 million and some of them may be obliged to invest their fiat money in the TON tokens, not Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are widely accepted in other ICOs.

"Top-tier institutional investment firms have expressed interest, but Durov is said to be wary of accepting their cash," TechCrunch publication reports.

Recently, Telegram has faced various legislative difficulties in Russia and other countries. For example, the Federal Security Sevice (FSB) of Russia fined the company for refusing to cooperate, and in Iran the messenger was temporarily blocked in the light of political protests currently taking place in the country.

The possible launch date of the Telegram wallet is set at the 4th quarter of 2018, and all services would be available in 2019.